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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23739805">a question of principle</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mangomunkki/pseuds/mangomunkki'>mangomunkki</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>fellas is it gay to feel hot after he smiles at you all covered in blood, just a friendly sparring bout amiright</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2019-09-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2019-09-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:21:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>971</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23739805</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mangomunkki/pseuds/mangomunkki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaoru has his doubts about Kal. This is a simple way to demonstrate why.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Apocalypse Universe</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a question of principle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Here's a quick drabble I wrote up about a couple of OC:s from mine and a friend's RP campaign! if you're interested in hearing more about them, go peep at my twitter @creatormango<br/>This was a piece where I tried to hone my action writing skills. I'll leave the question of success up to you.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sand sprays everywhere as Kaoru digs his heels in, refusing to slide away any further. He can feel a burn developing on his side where the chain had struck, tearing away at cloth and skin, but he can also see the burn of exhaustion taking hold in his opponent. Kal, despite their demonic glamour and seeming perfection, is breathing more heavily, their movements starting to slow and get sloppier. The ground around their feet is smattered with red and black dots alike, marking a makeshift ring where they’d spent the last ten or so minutes just circling each other, coming together to trade a few blows before separating again.</p><p>Kaoru grits his teeth, willing himself to focus analytically – were he to get too poetic now, he’d lose control of his clones and would be throwing the fight at that point. Still, he muses as he directs one of the three copies he had surrounding the demon, not paying much heed to the echoes of faint pain as that one is forced back again, he has to give it to them – Kal was strong, not to mention clever. Them being able to hold their own against four opponents was impressive in its own right, especially considering the unique sync said opponents had. Still, all it took was one mistake from them and he’d be able to punch through their defence, and at that point, in a real battle they’d be dead.</p><p>Letting the flow of combat run over him again, Kaoru blinks, reorienting his vision as a last-second dodge has one of his copies doing a backflip to duck a spear-like chain shooting in its direction. The refocus doesn’t take more than a split second, him having had years and years to hone his skills and get used to getting sensory feedback from multiple sources, yet he still mentally berates himself – had his thoughts not been drifting off, it wouldn’t have taken even that long. There was a time and place to analyse the situation, and it certainly wasn’t now. The faint rasp of the hilt of his kodachi is familiar under his palm as he switches his grip, rushing in for a glancing strike at the demon’s right arm.</p><p>He sees the chain materialise behind them, the information relayed to him just in time for him to duck and weave around it – he’d learned the hard way that trying to jump over the chains was a bad idea, since they seemed to be able to fluidly shoot heat upwards, even if the chains themselves took a second or two to change direction that drastically. Kal tsk’s at this, the faintest of furrows taking root in their brow. Even as Kaoru knows his face remains entirely blank, he feels elated – they must’ve been growing weary quicker than he’d thought. His strike finds its target, dark ichor spilling out the newest gash in their arm as Kal pushes him off, the strike leaving him winded as the metal of the chains smash against his ribcage. They’d agreed on nothing potentially lethal and no bones broken, but that didn’t mean Kal was fully pulling their punches, that much was obvious. They’d both be black and blue, come tomorrow, but that’d be a small price to pay. He had a point to make.</p><p>The rhythm they fall into feels annoyingly familiar. He doesn’t want to admit it, but they mix well – their styles of fighting are just similar enough to make it easy for there to form a pattern for them to follow, but at the same time such opposites that neither side can really jump to the challenge and by exploiting something, turn the tables in their favour.<br/>
They must’ve been fighting for close to half an hour now, and it shows in them both. There’s an edge of desperation to their movement, a sloppiness that wasn’t there before, a mad rush to finally reach forward and get the upper hand, to topple the other before their weariness overtook them. Still, they were just too evenly matched. Watching a lock of dark hair flutter to the ground as a stray chain singes it off Kaoru groans, willing to just please let this be over already.</p><p>Kal seems to take this as a sign he’s almost down, dashing forward with a surprising speed – clearly, they’d been holding a reserve of energy for this purpose. Impressive, flicks through Kaoru’s head as he springs his own ambush.<br/>
The chain wrapping around his neck feels cool and hot at the same time, constricting enough to be alarming but not so much he’d risk passing out. “Feel like yielding yet?” At Kal’s question, the laid back impression they clearly want to give overshadowed by their heavy breathing, Kaoru lifts his head, meeting the demon’s eyes. He can see the exact moment they realise they currently have four blades pointing at them, each one mere inches away from vital organs or, in Kaoru’s case, their jugular. A wry chuckle escapes his throat regardless of the fact that the oxygen he’s currently got in his lungs is a very valuable commodity, him trusting on them releasing him soon enough. “You really want to test which one of us is faster?”</p><p>A couple of seconds pass during which neither of them speaks, the slow drip-drip-drip of blood on sand measuring their moments. Then, Kal caves, dissolving the chains and taking a step back before stumbling into a crouch, their breathing fusing into a quiet laugh.<br/>
“Christ, you are something else.” Kaoru glances at them from where he’d fallen into a sitting position as well, wiping away a trickle of blood from their brow, shoots them a smile before he can really even stop himself. “Same to you.”<br/>
Is that the faintest blush painting itself on the demon’s cheeks, or simply exhaustion? Interesting.</p>
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